AS part of efforts to check insecurity, the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in northern Nigeria Sunday visited Boko Haram suspects and some survivors of bomb explosions in Kaduna.
The Chairman of the committee who is also the Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Alhaji Tanimu Turaki (SAN), at the weekend led other members of the panel to Armed Forces and Staff College (AFSC), Jaji, St. Andrew's Protestant Church, located at Jaji Military Cantonment and St. Rita's Catholic Church, Ungwan Yero, Kaduna.
The committee later met with Boko Haram suspects where they had a closed-door meeting with them. But journalists were barred from the meeting.
While at the AFSC Jaji, a mild drama ensued when an officer told the committee members that the Commandant, Air Vice Marshal Effiong Osim, was not going to see them because he was attending to a permanent secretary from the Ministry of Defence.
Although the visit was unscheduled, the chairman of the committee became furious at the information and ordered that the commandant must see them as they were on a presidential assignment.
Turaki said: "This is rubbish, how can he not see us because he is attending to a permanent secretary? I am a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and we are on a presidential assignment. I have left my office and have not attended the Federal Executive Council meetings for five weeks now because of this assignment."
The commandant later apologised for the earlier information from one of his officers, and immediately went into a closed-door meeting with the committee before visiting the sight of the bombed church, which is under construction.
At the bomb site, the chairman assured the victims that the President was particularly worried about the general insecurity across the country, and that he was committed to providing succour to the victims and families of dead persons in the bombings, just as he requested the commandant to quantify all the damage in the church in monetary terms and forward it to the committee.
"We are here to ascertain the volume of damage in terms of monetary value and recommend appropriate support programme to Mr. President," he said.
At St. Rita's Catholic Church, Ungwa Yero in the Kaduna metropolis, prayers were offered at the graves of the four victims on the church premises. They died following the blast that rocked the church in October last year.
The committee chairman said that the affected persons would be adequately compensated by the government.
The Guardian
I believe all their ogas will be gone very soon and we'll hear of Boko Haram no more. That's what i think.